stack up

verb

stacked up; stacking up; stacks up

intransitive verb

1

: to add up

Cars were beginning to stack up behind the bus.

2

: to be in a particular state or situation

Here's how things stack up today.

3

: measure up, compare

—usually used with against

How does he stack up against the other job candidates?

Synonyms of stack up

• compare (with)
• measure up (to)

Examples of stack up in a Sentence

those newspapers have been stacking up in the basement since we moved here

Recent Examples on the Web

When the data is clean and one owner runs the system, the results stack up in your favor. — Erik Huberman, Forbes.com, 25 Sep. 2026

There are also pockets on the calendar that have three to five releases stacked up on a weekly basis. — Sarah Whitten, CNBC, 25 Sep. 2026

Coel is similarly formidable when stacked up against Anne Hathaway in A24’s Mother Mary. — Joe Reid, Vulture, 25 Sep. 2026

They’re stacked up in superposition, like overlapping waves of water or sound. — Elise Cutts, Quanta Magazine, 23 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1896, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for stack up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup

Kids Definition

stack up

verb

: measure up sense 2, compare

see how you stack up against the champion